Lawrence Matthews announces his debut album Between Mortal Reach & Posthumous Grip, will arrive in the summer of 2024. Along with the news, Lawrence shares new single “Limelight Honey,” which arrives paired with a self-directed video shot across Memphis, providing a window into everyday life down South.

On Between Mortal Reach & Posthumous Grip Matthews moves forward toward a healthy and free self, all while reckoning with the extreme environmental stimulus of southern poverty and violence. Though often imagined as opposing forces, the horror and beauty of the south often live in the same space. Matthews navigates this in-between space as an extension of the southern gothic voices with whom he is aligned.

Speaking more about the meaning behind “Limelight Honey,” Matthews shares, “Memphis is overflowing with talent but it’s also overflowing with compounded experiences of loss personified in your community that feed on your dreams. Memphis can feel like a deep funnel due to the lack of infrastructure and resources that actually advance you and not siphon your gifts. This song is kind of defiant in a way. It’s arrogant. It’s petty. It’s not evolved on the surface but it also acknowledges that this public display of arrogance and contempt doesn’t lead people down the best path.”

Between Mortal Reach & Posthumous Grip finds Matthews providing thoughtful discourse on art, mythology, blackness, and sexuality from the heart of the bible belt. Creating this album has led Matthews to a deeper and more honest relationship with his community and himself. The unbelievable became inextricably linked to what is real. He ventured into the unexplored corners of himself, places and stories forgotten or suppressed behind traumatic environments and a survivalist mentality. Now a reborn artist, Matthews is intentional about aligning himself with others. That intention is a thread in his new musical journey, as he compares his stories with the stories of those who came before him and walks alongside their traditions.

Order “Limelight Honey” by Lawrence Matthews HERE